How to make a quick buck? Fishermen steal underwater internet cable

Singapore-based Singtel communications group said Monday May 14 that it had photographed what appears to be a Vietnamese fishing vessel stealing a fibre optic cable that stretches from Vietnam to the city-state.

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications international internet arm, Vietnam Telecoms International (VTI), said Singtel’s international cable repair ship Asean Explorer shot the incriminating photo of the vessel BV-9307TS catching it red-handed stealing a section of the cable belonging to Asia Pacific Cable Network (APCN).

Early this month, VTI reported another cable theft where 11 kilometres of the Thailand-Vietnam-Hong Kong marine cable channel was allegedly stolen in the southern province of Ca Mau. The culprit is still unknown.

Since early this year, police say they have broken up five fibre optic cable theft cases and confiscated 500 tonnes of fibre optic cable with unknown origins in the Mekong Delta provinces of Bac Lieu, Soc Trang, and Kien Giang.

 

Category: Business